Nekomimi
by Lady Tsuru27
Summary: When Souichi gets annoyed by Tetsuhiro's new school assignment, things get way out of hand very quickly. Rated for mild language.


**Disclaimer: Don't own em, so I can't make money off of them. Then again, why would I want to when fanfiction allows me to do with them what I want in my own mind? Ah, the freedom of fandom! **

**Warnings: Cursing and some homophobic comments (you can guess from whom). **

**Summary: When Souichi gets annoyed at Tetsuhiro's new school assignment, things get way out of hand very quickly. **

**Notes: OK, this is just a little one-shot that was inspired by, of all things, a news story I saw. I'll explain it at the end of the chapter… Enjoy! **

XXXXX

They were mocking him. Twitching, swishing, standing up perkily, the annoying little things just wouldn't quit vying for his attention. They were very much like their owner that way; no matter what Souichi did, he just couldn't ignore them.

It had started when one of Tetsuhiro's professors had asked him to stay after class. It was Tetsuhiro's last class of the day, neurology. Souichi had been finished with his work for half an hour, and he didn't really feel like waiting around much longer. "Go on home, Senpai," the younger man had said cheerfully, "I probably won't be too long, but you're tired, so…"

"Don't have to tell me twice," Souichi shrugged, spinning around and walking out of the building. He had gotten home without incident, and sprawled on the couch for a quick nap. Before it had gotten too late, Souichi woke up and his kouhai came home soon after that…

…with the offending objects on his head.

"What the hell are **those **things?" Souichi had shouted as soon as the other man was in the door.

"Oh, this is a new project that Nakai-sensei is working on!" Tetsuhiro beamed, making Souichi grimace, "Aren't they cool?"

"They" were two cat ears. Specifically, it was a set of two white, fluffy things resembling cat ears attached to a black plastic band that wrapped around Tetsuhiro's forehead. As Souichi watched in horror, they wiggled from side to side before twirling halfway around and then lowering. They rose again, repeating the earlier motion as Tetsuhiro said, "It's neurofeedback technology. They react to your emotions, see?"

"What the…" Souichi could see, all right. They were moving as if alive, soundlessly and fluidly.

"Sensei asked me to test them for her research team. She's given them out to a few others already, and most of her research team's testing it for themselves, but she thought I'd like to have them for a week or so." Tetsuhiro's smile morphed into a concerned expression, "Um, what's the matter, Senpai?"

"You… you look like a fag!" Souichi crossed his arms huffily.

"Ah, Senpai, don't be so harsh! It's really cool technology! You know they could one day use this to communicate with comatose people, right?" Tetsuhiro sighed, then walked into the kitchen, "I bet you're hungry… Sorry for making you wait. I'll get to cooking right now!"

"About time!" Souichi managed to yell before he resumed staring at the fuzzy abominations. There they were, perched merrily atop his kouhai's head, still moving and looking almost like they belonged there. They were annoying, they were distracting, and most of all they were completely adorable.

"_Those little fuckers have to go," _Souichi thought with a nervous tic developing in his right eye. The more he tried to ignore them, the more he looked at them; and the more he looked at them, the cuter they made his kouhai look. He couldn't decide which was worse – Tetsuhiro prancing around the kitchen with cat ears, or his enjoyment of watching Tetsuhiro prance around the kitchen in cat ears.

When Tetsuhiro finally served dinner, Souichi was hoping he would take them off to eat. No such luck. They stayed firmly in place as their wearer started eating. "Senpai, what's wrong?" Tetsuhiro asked, noticing that Souichi was staring at him from across the table with an expression of pure annoyance, "I thought you liked mackerel…"

"I do!" Souichi grabbed his chopsticks and dug in, and then said in his best nonchalant tone, "By the way, aren't you going to take those things off?"

"Oh, I'm supposed to wear them for a certain amount of time each day, and log their functions. Why?"

"No reason! Just eat!" Souichi stuffed his mouth with food to avoid having to speak, but inside he was fuming. _"He has to wear them every day? What if he wears them to school tomorrow? I'll have to be in the LAB with him!" _He resolved to destroy the ears as soon as he could get his hands on them.

The rest of the meal was spent in silence. Tetsuhiro kept glancing over at Souichi, wondering if he was angry at him. Souichi in turn would glance over at Tetsuhiro to see the artificial ears waving around. It was too much. He had to find a way to get rid of them, and soon.

With dinner over and done with, Souichi retired to his room to finish a paper so he could get out of having to look at Tetsuhiro and those ridiculous cat ears. Even with his laptop in front of him, though, he couldn't get rid of the mental image. _"I'll bet he's doing this on purpose!" _Souichi thought, _"That bastard! Since he hasn't forced himself on me in a while, and he can't torture me with the mental image of us having sex, he's torturing me with THIS!" _It was an unfortunate train of thought, because immediately he imagined having sex with Tetsuhiro while his lover-esque kouhai was wearing the cat ears. "DAMN YOU, MORINAGA!" he shouted suddenly, punching the wall in an attempt to get rid of the picture.

"S- Senpai, what is it?" Tetsuhiro came rushing into the room, halfway worried and halfway afraid that Souichi was mad at him again.

"Uh… Um…" Souichi stared up at Tetsuhiro like a deer staring down the headlights of a tanker truck, "I just noticed… Y- you didn't, ah, delete that paper you had written on here… that last time…"

"The document? Senpai, I have my own laptop… I only used yours last month, remember? When my laptop needed repairs."

"Hey, it's not my fault that I didn't notice it before!" Souichi snapped, glaring at the screen so he could resist looking at Tetsuhiro, "You know I like the contents of my computer to be organized! I don't want any of your stuff on here!"

"Ah… I'm sorry?"

"Just forget about it!"

"OK, Senpai… If you're sure…" Tetsuhiro left the room, but Souichi noticed that he glanced back worriedly.

For the next couple of hours, Souichi did his best to avoid all thought of Tetsuhiro. Whenever an image would pop into his head, he would bite his lip and slap himself on the face. The time dragged by slowly, and finally Souichi got tired of waiting for Tetsuhiro to go to bed. His only chance to destroy the ears would be while Tetsuhiro was asleep.

"Hey, Morinaga!" he shouted, standing and walking into the living room.

"What is it?" Tetsuhiro was sitting on the couch, apparently finishing up some schoolwork of his own. The ears were still in place.

"You should get to bed," Souichi said, "It's late."

"It's only 11:40."

"That's still late! Didn't you say you had a quiz coming up?"

"Not until noon… My first class of the morning was cancelled this week, so it should be fine."

"I don't wanna hear it!" Souichi nearly leapt over the couch and slammed Tetsuhiro's laptop shut, "Get to bed!"

"S- Senpai? What's gotten into you?" Tetsuhiro wanted to protest further, but the look in Souichi's eyes and a well-aimed kick sent him flying to his own room. He retreated, hastily putting on his pajamas and only dashing into the bathroom to quickly brush his teeth. Souichi stood by the door, his arms crossed and looking like he was supervising a prison inmate.

"Just why do I have to go to bed now? And why are you telling me to in the first place?" Tetsuhiro asked after rinsing his mouth, "Why do you care?"

"I don't want you to fail that quiz, that's all," Souichi had to make an effort to sound calm. Tetsuhiro in his pajamas, wearing the infuriating cat ears, was just too much. "Since you threatened to drop out of school, I feel like I have to watch you to make sure you don't screw up again."

"Senpai…"

"Hurry up! You've got five minutes to be in bed!"

"Y- yes, Senpai!" Tetsuhiro raced back to his room, set the cat ears down on his bedside table, and buried himself under his blanket as if the fires of hell were at his heels. _"In a way, they are…" _he thought as he peeped from beneath the covers. Souichi was standing in the doorway, arms still crossed.

"Go to sleep," he commanded, then turned and walked out of sight. Tetsuhiro heard the squeak of the couch springs, and he relaxed a bit.

"_Why is Senpai acting so strangely?" _he thought, _"Is he mad at me? I don't think I did anything… I didn't even hug him today…" _He sighed a little, and then suddenly it hit him. _"Wait, he was acting really concerned for my education… Could it be? Could Senpai actually care about me enough to force me to go to sleep? Did he boss me around like that because he __**cares**__?" _A small smile formed on his face as he snuggled deeper into the covers. It was possible, in his view, that Souichi was beginning to care a bit for him. It was a nice thought, and it soothed him to sleep after a while with a smile still on his face.

Meanwhile, there were no such lovey-dovey thoughts on Souichi's mind. He had one mission: get the cat ears. It seemed simple enough. Tetsuhiro had been in bed for two hours already. Impatient though he was, Souichi wasn't about to risk being discovered. He would never be able to explain his bizarre behavior without admitting to some very personal feelings, and those personal feelings could very well be his downfall. If he didn't take the risk, though, he would be forced to watch Tetsuhiro flaunt the cat ears for who knew how long. If that happened, he would be sure to betray himself somehow.

Failure was not an option.

Standing up carefully, Souichi crept into Tetsuhiro's darkened room. His kouhai was indeed asleep, as a few soft calls of his name failed to get a response. The target was on the nightstand, unguarded. Souichi grinned to himself. This would be easy.

Just before he could touch them, though, Tetsuhiro's hand shot out and grabbed the target. Souichi had to clamp his mouth shut to avoid uttering a surprised cry. Tetsuhiro was now clutching the ears in one hand while the other one slowly stroked one of the furry parts.

Souichi growled in frustration. This was an unexpected development. His first thought was that he should have strapped Tetsuhiro into bed, but he quickly dismissed that notion. It wouldn't have done anything, since he couldn't have predicted this development. There was nothing he could do now but try to get them back.

He reached forward and grabbed the hand that was holding onto the plastic headband. Gently, yet wishing he could break those fingers, he pried them apart. Tetsuhiro wouldn't have it, though. His grip tightened, and he rolled over to face the wall.

"Damn!" Souichi muttered under his breath. Taking a step back, he assessed the situation. There was no way he would be able to roll Tetsuhiro over without waking him. It would also be impossible to even reach the ears if he leaned over while standing. He would have to kneel behind Tetsuhiro and reach over.

Part of his mind screamed at him to just let it go and carry out his plan another time. He felt he was too far into this, though. He had to see it through. Tightening his mouth into a rigid line, squaring his shoulders, Souichi got onto the bed and leaned over the sleeping man.

Tetsuhiro was still stroking the cat ears, and that grin was still on his face. Souichi figured he was deeply asleep if he was dreaming, and so he began to try and pry the ears away from him once more. He had just unhooked two fingers from the band when Tetsuhiro mumbled, "Sn… pa…"

Souichi froze, still arched over Tetsuhiro's side and holding his hand. Tetsuhiro continued to mumble something incoherent, only making sense on a few words. "…cute… Senp… hmm… warm…" His babbling kept Souichi in place, as he was afraid that Tetsuhiro was beginning to wake up. He did not want to be lying on top of him when he woke up, but at the same time he didn't want to jolt him awake by leaping up. He was just beginning to slowly ease backward when Tetsuhiro mumbled, a bit more clearly than before, "Senpai's cute… in these ears…"

It took a minute for that to sink in. Tetsuhiro was dreaming about Souichi wearing the cat ears. Hearing this, Souichi just couldn't help it. Shaking in anger, his face flaring red, he reared up and shouted, "MORINAGA, YOU PERVERTED ASS!"

XXXXX

The next morning, a very sheepish-looking Tetsuhiro appeared in his professor's office. "Sensei, I've come to apologize… Your expensive equipment, which you entrusted to me, is…"

"Morinaga-san, what happened?" the professor asked, dumbfounded. The cat ears were laid on her desk, mangled and torn.

"It was an accident," Tetsuhiro said, glancing out the door at where Souichi was waiting for him. He then proceeded to tell his professor about the "accident". He didn't tell the entire truth, but he did offer to pay for the damage. They struck up a deal, Tetsuhiro apologized again, and then he left her office.

"What'd she say?" Souichi asked, still avoiding making eye contact with Tetsuhiro as they walked down the hall together.

"She said it'd be fine if I paid for them. It won't be too much, since they were only a prototype."

"What did you tell her about…"

"I just said it was a car accident," Tetsuhiro smiled reassuringly at his senpai. He was telling the truth, technically. In the confusion following Souichi's outburst, Tetsuhiro had demanded to know what Souichi was doing. Unable to produce a satisfactory answer, all Souichi could do was stare at the cat ears. It was then that Tetsuhiro put two and two together, and asked if the cat ears bothered Souichi somehow.

Panicked and enraged, Souichi had promptly thrown the ears out of the window.

The ears had indeed been run over by a car after that. Tetsuhiro didn't get angry, as he figured that a car passing by at that late hour had to be fate. As with many things, he accepted it. His senpai, however, wouldn't be pressed for an explanation. He refused to say why they had bothered him so much. Finally, Tetsuhiro had had to drop the subject. He didn't mind, though. He had an idea of why they bothered Souichi so much, and he felt that it wasn't his place to push the issue any further.

Besides, he couldn't wait to see the look on his senpai's face when he put on the pair of costume cat ears he had bought before coming to school that morning.

**The End**

**OK, to explain this, I got this idea when I saw a news article about "nekomimi," which are just what I explained them to be. They were developed in Japan as a sort of high-end fashion item that came about as the product of research into neurofeedback, which is – in case you didn't know and in case you actually care to hear me blab – basically the study of being able to control certain things about your body and mind by being made aware of them. The band senses your emotions, relays them back to you via the ear movements, and the theory is that you can better control your own moods by being more aware of them. **

**I get a little long-winded about stuff like this, but I thought it was so cool! Not to mention cute! I really want a pair, but the article said they'd be sold for a few hundred dollars. I'm not THAT fashion-conscious! **

**Anyway, sorry about that. Medical stuff just fascinates me. I hope the fic was good! I just had to write it, because it's been in my head since I read the article a few days ago. Souichi just doesn't seem like he'd handle cuteness too well! XD Oh, and I know that the ears don't really work so fluidly in real life. But this is a fanfic of a manga. That pretty much explains it!**


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